Vegetable growers in Western Australia’s south-west say red tape and access to water is holding them back from expanding their businesses.

A recent report commissioned by VegetablesWA to look at the current and future potential for the Myalup area for horticulture production found the region is already outstripping the Kimberley’s Ord region in terms of production.

The horticulture hot spot, about 140 kilometres south of Perth, produces 25 per cent of the state’s vegetables.

Growers say they could be even more productive if they a few things swung their way.

“Just a bit of practicality, I mean, if they (the Harvey Shire) came out and actually had a look at what we’re doing,” said Anthony Ivankovich, a carrot and onion grower from Myalup.

“They’re basically treating all the farming like we’re in the mining sector, like we’re just going to rape and pillage the ground and trees.

“Most of the farms are running as efficiently as possible.

“They’re hindering us.”

Anthony, along with his father Peter, uses just 300 acres to grow 3,000 tonnes of onions a year, predominantly for the domestic market, and 6,000 tonnes of carrots for export, mainly to the Middle East.

They access water from bores, surface water and also the Leederville bore.

Peter and Anthony Ivankovich are eager to expand, with an ambitious goal to double export production by next year, but they say there are two main things slowing them down.

“Red tape now is the big problem... it’s just got difficult, it really has,” Peter said.

“We’ve been farming agricultural land for 20 years and now you want to extend your irrigation a bit more and you’ve got to put in for planning consent, it’s just getting really difficult.

“Water is an issue too. You get an allocation, and if you can’t get any more then you’re restricted in what you can do.”

The horticulture industry along the Myalup coastal strip produces $62 million worth of vegetables annually, but the report commissioned by VegetablesWA found it has the potential produce well over $300 million.

But growers feel stagnant without a guarantee of access to good quality water.

Peter Ivankovich says demand for carrots alone out of the region is “off the scale” and they could easily double their production, and quite easily sell it, if they had the water resources to do it.